With a gasp, I blink myself awake. My heart is racing, ba-boom ba-boom ba-boom, lingering from the nightmare I just woke up from. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, a sense of dread starts to spread over me, causing the fine hairs on my arms and neck to stand on end. Everything is pitch black, I can’t even see my own hand out in front of me. The only thing I can feel is the cold damp ground and wall next to me.
Relying on my sense of touch to paint a picture of where I am, I run my hands across the floor and wall and can feel the rough texture of concrete scrape across them. Following the length of the wall, my hands come up against another wall. A corner… I must be in a room, I thought. Feeling along the wall some more, my left-hand slips into a gap and knocks something small. Just as a terrifying sound comes from somewhere in the darkness. My heart races.
Ba-boom ba-boom ba-doom
I blindly grab at the object at my fingertips, hoping that it will turn out to be something useful. It rattles as I pick it up. From the sound, and the feel of the outside of the box, it seems oddly familiar. Matches? Could it be? I think, sliding the box open. Fumbling around trying to pull a single match out of the box, I manage to get one between my fingers and quickly strike it. As the match roars to life, it casts a faint orange glow. Staring out from my corner, I see shadows scuttle back into the darkness. The match only lights up a small part of the corner I’m cradled in, but it seems that is just enough to scare away whatever is living in the darkness. As I breathe a sigh of relief, I start to feel the tears streaming down my face.
Wondering how long ago the tears had started, I decide to make the most of the time I have before the match inevitably burns out. Looking around my corner, I notice that the floor and walls are grey. There’s no colour to be found. The hole, where I had found the matches, looks like it could just be big enough to fit a brick snugly in it. Curiosity takes over me and I peer through the hole, on the other side is only more darkness. The match starts to fade as it comes to its end. Suddenly, what was once curiosity turns back into an overwhelming feeling of dread and fear. In the fading light, the shadows emerge once again as the sounds start to grow louder.
Ba-boom ba-doom ba-doom
I drop the dying match and with trembling hands fumble away trying to light another. I strike the new match just as the first flickers for the last time. The shadows retreat into the darkness again. Terrified of venturing out from my corner, I back myself up against the walls and watch as the match slowly burns. The tears continue to stream like a flooded river across my cheeks.
As I strike another match, I notice that I’ve gone through half the box now. I can’t tell how long I’ve been trapped in this place, as there is no way to tell how much time has passed. My tears dried up a while ago and I’ve accepted the dread that overwhelms me as a normal feeling here. The sounds and shadows barely raise my heartbeat anymore. I know if I keep a match burning, the mysterious beings will stay in the darkness, out of sight. As the match starts to flicker again, a new sound breaks the silence.
Ba-doom ba-doom ba-doom
It sounds like its coming from the other side of the wall, from another person. “Help, help, someone please help me!” cries out the stranger.
I strike the next match, as it bursts to life, the stranger cries out again. “Hello? Is… is… someone there?”
“I’m here” I reply. “Can you see the hole in the wall?”
“Y… yes, there’s are light coming from it” the stranger replies.
“That’s me! Here’s some matches. Quickly, strike one. They don’t like the light” I say, as I place the match box on the ledge of the hole in the wall.
The stranger takes the matches and I can see the light break the darkness on their side of the wall as they strike one. “Are you able to see anything?” I ask.
“There’s… there’s a door close by” the stranger replies. “I’m going to see if it goes anywhere”.
I hear the stranger shuffling away from the wall. Peering through the hole, I can’t make out where they are, but I can see the light from their match fading into the distance. Then, the slow groan of a door opening and the light from their side of the wall fades completely into darkness. “Hello? Hello? Are you there?” I call out. No answer. I try calling out again, still no answer. In confused disbelief, I slump down against the wall.
As I’m processing what just happened, I’m brought out of my trance by the flickering of my match. I go to pick up the box of matches to strike another, only then, to realise that the stranger had taken it with them. The realisation that I’ve lost them sends icy shivers across my entire body, with the fear setting in that this is my last match. Frozen solid, all I’m able to do is watch as the match continues to flicker and grow weaker by the second.
The shadows start skipping across the walls. The sounds of what lies out of sight grows louder and louder as the match fades. As the flame from the match fades more and more, the shadows draw closer, until they are nearly on top of me. The terrifying sounds are louder than anything I’ve heard before. The match flickers one last time, then, my world plunges into darkness. A complete darkness. The same as when I awoke. My heart goes crazy as I feel the darkness engulf me.
Da-doom da-doom da-doom
The End
Thanks for reading for my first short story, I hope you enjoyed it! I can’t wait to share more of these for you to read
– Ry
